Promoting marriage, especially among low-income single mothers with children, is increasingly viewed as a promising public policy strategy for improving developmental outcomes for disadvantaged children. Previous research suggests, however, that children's academic achievement either does not improve or declines when single mothers marry. In this…

This study investigates the effect of Jordanian Eleventh grade students' self-assessment on their performance in reading in English. The sample of the study consisted of an experimental group and a control group; each group consisted of two eleventh grade sections (67 male and 69 female students). A reading test was developed and its validity and…

This study estimated normative reading trajectories for the population of English-proficient language minority students attending U.S. public elementary schools. Achievement of English-language learners (ELLs) was evaluated in terms of native English speakers' progress, and estimates were adjusted for the effects of socioeconomic status (SES). The…

The present study explores the impact of an experimental reading intervention focusing on explicit reading strategy instruction and cross-age peer tutoring on third and sixth graders' reading strategy awareness, cognitive and metacognitive reading strategy use, and reading comprehension achievement. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design was…

Research has shown a strong connection between birth weight and future outcomes. We ask how health problems after birth affect outcomes using data from public health insurance records for 50,000 children born between 1979 and 1987 in the Canadian province of Manitoba. We compare children to siblings born an average of three years apart. We find…

This study examined whether measurement constructs behind reading-related tests for struggling adult readers are similar to what is known about measurement constructs for children. The sample included 371 adults reading between the third-and fifth-grade levels, including 127 men and 153 English speakers of other languages. Using measures of skills…

"Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies" is a peer-tutoring program for use in elementary school classrooms to improve student proficiency in reading. Its purpose is to supplement students' existing reading curriculum. "Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies" was developed for use with students with diverse academic needs and has been…

This article explains a viable, researched, teaching activity that I call Treasure Hunt. Treasure Hunt is an oral participation, vocabulary lesson that facilitates the transfer of reading comprehension to silent reading. I designed and used this activity with adolescent, challenged readers. The readers had scored below the 70th percentile on a…

This study attempted to determine whether giving lower-performing tutors preferential treatment over their higher-performing tutees before they engaged in peer tutoring sessions may help increase the reading achievement for these lower-performing tutors. The preferential treatment consisted of giving teacher-delivered instruction in a targeted…

In response to test-based accountability (No Child Left Behind, 2001), schools and districts across the country are adopting a variety of supplemental assessments aimed at improving student performance. These interim assessments are administered more than once during the school year for the following purposes: (1) predicting student performance on…

Since 2003, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has compared each state's standard for proficient performance in reading and mathematics by placing the state standards onto the NAEP scale. The procedure, "mapping," allows the level of achievement required for proficient performance in one state to be compared with the…

In this quantitative research study the researcher investigated the effect of vocabulary instruction on the reading achievement of at risk students. A quasi-experimental design was used to determine the effect that vocabulary instruction had on the reading achievement of the at risk students. The sample used in the study was purposive, because…

At the elementary grade level, former English language learner (ELL) students' TAKS passing rates in mathematics, reading/ELA, and writing significantly exceeded the TAKS passing rates of non-ELL students. At the secondary level, former ELL students' passing rates on TAKS mathematics, social studies, and science were significantly lower than the…

When attempting to determine if an intervention has a causal impact, the "gold standard" of program evaluation is the randomized controlled trial (RCT). In education studies random assignment is rarely feasible at the student level, making RCTs harder to conduct. School-level assignment is more common but this often requires considerable resources…

The articles in this special issue of the "Journal of Applied Testing Technology" represent significant steps forward in the area of evaluating the validity of methods for assessing the educational achievement of students with disabilities. The studies address some of the most difficult student groups to assess--students with learning…